Long Albany battle to end with demolition

Published 12:00 am, Friday, January 21, 2011

The Fort Orange Club notified members this week that its parking lot will be closed during the day Saturday and Sunday to accommodate the demolition of the two neighboring buildings that sat at the center of a two-and-a-half-year tug of war between the private club and the Historic Albany Foundation, which wanted to save them.

A settlement early last month ended the foundation's lawsuit to block the demolitions, allowing Historic Albany to salvage what it could and document the 19th-century buildings before they come down.

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The window to do that work has now expired.

In its message to members, the club said the parking lot -- which it is looking to expand and reconfigure as part of a larger club expansion -- would be closed during the day this weekend but open at night.

It was not immediately clear what time the demolition is scheduled to begin.

One of the buildings' legacies will be a new demolition review ordinance passed last year by the Common Council that requires all non-emergency demolitions to go before the Planning Board, allowing public comment and a lengthier review.

The confluence prompted one downtown resident, still smarting from the closure of the Washington Avenue YMCA, to ask this on Insider's Facebook page: "Are we becoming a ghost town?"

It all adds up

Rensselaer County Surrogate Court Judge Chris Hummel hasn't yet said whether he's running for re-election, but if the size of his campaign's bank account is any clue, it's a safe bet.

The East Greenbush Republican has nearly $89,350 banked in his campaign coffers, according to the Friends of Judge Hummel's financial disclosure statement for January to the state Board of Election.

That includes a $40,000 loan from Hummel himself -- not typically the actions of a man looking to wrap up his lengthy judicial career.

Prior to his 2001 election as surrogate, Hummel was a Rensselaer County Family Court judge from 1993 to 2001 and was an East Greenbush town justice from 1985 to 2002.

A surrogate's term lasts 10 years.

Clearing the bench

With Albany County Legislator Brian Scavo scheduled to face arraignment next week on a felony forgery accusation, we're told each of the three criminal court judges in Albany City Court have already recused themselves from handling the case.

An earlier case against Scavo -- which was later dismissed -- landed in Colonie Town Court for the same reason.

Breslin makes choice

Fresh off a bruising budget battle with the County Legislature, Albany County Executive Michael Breslin has nominated a new budget commissioner.

Breslin tapped John McPhillips, who most recently served as director of administrative services for the county Department for Children, Youth and Families, to succeed John Rodat -- who was forced out by Breslin last month.

"Albany County is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges that will require us to take a different approach to implementing the 2011 budget and crafting the 2012 budget. Therefore the county executive asked for Mr. Rodat's resignation."

What was common knowledge to any observer, however, was that county lawmakers had become increasingly agitated by Rodat during the county's budget negotiations -- even going to so far as to target several staffers in his office for layoffs in the legislature's budget counter-proposal.

"Why have a budget department if they can't come up with a budget?" Dan McCoy, the legislature's chairman and leader of the county's Democratic Party, said at the time.

The two sides battled over the legislature's budget assumptions, which Breslin's office -- and Rodat, specifically -- said were unrealistic and riddled with holes.

It was not immediately clear what Breslin's "different approach" might be -- other than, perhaps, having someone county lawmakers will view with less hostility.

Breslin's gloomy budget proposal called for hundreds of job cuts and closing or selling the county nursing home, a centerpiece of his budget messages for the last two years.

But in an 11th-hour deal that staved off his veto of the legislature's budget -- a veto that the legislature may have overridden -- Breslin agreed to support the construction of a new, smaller nursing facility.